It was safe to assume that since the time seemed to be stuck in place, the dawn wouldn't be coming. Waiting in the broken elevator would only result in Xavier getting more sleepy and losing body heat.
Of course, it was just a theory. All that Xavier had were just random guesses. Based on his horror knowledge, pretty much anything was possible. Based on his experience…
There was no experience to speak of.
Xavier didn't have a habit of investigating urban legends or anything. It had been just one stupid drunken decision. One that he might regret for the rest of his life.
Which would last longer than a few minutes, hopefully.
Either way, whether he liked it or not, his best option seemed to be to venture out of the elevator to explore. Perhaps he should try to look for the stairs. Whether he would be able to use them to descend, it was hard to tell, since he was on a non-existent floor, but that was the best idea he currently had.
Better that than just waiting for death.
"This is so stupid," he muttered, standing right at the elevator door. He was feeling like a complete idiot for stepping out into the corridor. Considering everything, though, no choice seemed exactly 'smart' at the moment, and by moving around, he should at least be able to stay awake. And warm up a bit.
He took a deep breath, and took a step forward.
Then another.
And one more…
Nothing was happening. There was no movement, nor was there any sound other than his footsteps. Just him, the cold, stale, dusty air, and the empty corridor filled with the yellow light coming from behind his back…
Flick.
All of a sudden, the elevator lights went off, drowning the corridor in absolute darkness.
'Ah, shit.'
Xavier stood still for a moment, holding his breath, fully expecting something to happen. Any second now, a monster would appear and…
Nothing.
Time passed by, but absolutely nothing happened. The corridor was just as quiet and still as before, the only sounds that could be heard were those of his heart beating heavily in his chest and his ragged breathing.
"Huuuu…" Xavier exhaled slowly.
Of course, just because his surroundings were silent and nothing attacked him, that didn't mean that there wasn't anything skulking in the darkness. The monsters, ghosts, or whatever, could simply be toying with him, feeding off his fear.
It was far too early to assume that he was 'safe' in any way.
But… at least he wasn't dead yet.
He rushed to unlock his phone, getting the password wrong twice out of nerves, and quickly turned on the flashlight. Once he could finally see again, he moved his phone left, right, front, back, up, making sure that nothing was out of place.
It wasn't.
Honestly, it was rather underwhelming. Xavier felt almost stupid for being so scared.
At the same time, he knew that he couldn't lower his guard. Not until he found a way out.
Slowly, he took a few steps back to check whether the lamp in the elevator would turn on. His phone still had 46% battery left, so he should be fine for a while, but he still wanted to check, just to see.
It didn't work, though. Even as he stepped back and forth, and waved his arm to trigger the motion sensor (if there was any), nothing happened. The elevator remained dark and unresponsive.
Had he made a mistake? Perhaps he shouldn't have left the elevator, after all…
Xavier stared at the inside of the elevator for a moment longer, before shrugging his shoulders.
It was what it was. Regretting his choices now wouldn't change anything.
Regardless, now that the lights were off, staying in the elevator seemed even more pointless. He lifted his phone, lighting the way, and started moving forward again.
There wasn't much to see, to be honest. Just a long stretch of corridor, with the floor, the ceiling, and the walls all made out of naked concrete. Plain and grey, uneven in color, but with no stains or anything.
Then, there were white doors on both sides, located in even intervals, with the paint peeling off them like dead skin. Each of them had a symbol scribbled on it with dark red paint that awfully resembled dried blood.
And finally, there was a window at the very end.
Xavier decided to check the window first. An escape from the 13th floor through it likely wouldn't be possible for obvious reasons (even ignoring the fact that he seemed to be in some other realm), but he wanted to at least check if he could see what was outside.
Besides, he was hardly tempted to open any of the doors, as he had no idea what could be lurking on the other side. The red scribbles were completely incomprehensible, providing him with no clues.
Slowly, he moved forward, his steps reverberating among the empty walls. The world around him was deathly quiet, which made every sound that he made, from the steps, through the rustling of his clothes, even down to his breathing and heartbeat, almost painful to hear. His eyes slid over every door he passed, searching for any symbol that could point to the location of the staircase.
But there was nothing. Just random dots and lines, resembling nothing he could recognize.
Eventually, Xavier's steps came to a halt. After what felt like forever, he reached the end of the corridor. All that was left in front of him was the window, with its old, white frame, the world outside it drowned in impenetrable darkness.
He quickly glanced back, scanning the path he had just walked, before slowly leaning closer to the window, squinting his eyes as he tried to see through it. When it didn't work, he tugged on his sleeve and rubbed the glass, in perhaps a foolish attempt to try to clean it. Just in case the darkness it showed was a layer of dirt…
SLAM!
His heart almost jumped out of his throat when, behind his back, one of the doors opened with so much force that it smashed against the wall.